Menu

30 Days of Biking 2014 – Day 1

And so begins another 30 Days of Biking! You can still join. New this year: Free Bikes 4 Kidz is donating a bike for every 30 pledges. I’m not sure I’ll be able to log our exploits on the blog each day, but I’ll certainly be biking each day and fulfilling the tweet aspect of #30daysofbiking. Oh, and by the way, I was pledge #1! I won a poster! I’ll post a picture of it when it arrives.

Today started with the school run–2.2 miles to preschool for a 9:00 a.m. drop off and then race right back almost to home for 9:25 a.m. first grade drop off. And we had to wait for the drawbridge in between! But we made it with five minutes to spare somehow. A 30 Days of Biking miracle. Photo taken by Mel, our elementary school’s crossing guard who bikes to work. He’s the best!

Then I rushed over to 1:00 p.m. preschool pickup. I just missed the drawbridge and was four minutes late–a first, boo! I met a fellow preschool mom on the wrong side of the bridge. She was on foot and I should have offered more seriously to carry her over to school. I think she was game, but we decided I should rush over and report on the poorly-timed bridge opening. A shame I missed out on a fun carry the first day of 30 Days of Biking! And then we hit the grocery store (and kisses from the black dog tied to the pole).

Quick stop at Recycled Cycles to pick up my racing kit and then chanced upon the demolition of the North Transfer Station–quite exciting.

We saw Stella outside as we pedaled by Durn Good Grocery so popped in for a quick pet.

At 3:30 my first grader was done with school so the preschooler and I picked him up with the Big Dummy and the two kid bikes on board to head down to the Burke-Gilman Trail by UW Mercer Court. The kids biked back and forth and I was interviewed as part of the new Burke-Gilman Trail TIGER application. I forgot to take photos of the interview team at work, but Lynne happened to ride by on her Xtracycle EdgeRunner so here’s a picture of her. I first met Lynne when I saw her a block away on what turned out was her maiden cargo bike voyage and chased her down to ask a million questions (“What’s your name?” “How long have you had that awesome bike?” “Where do you live?” “Will you join the Seattle Family Biking Facebook group?”…you know, nothing too creepy).

I’m not officially declaring a theme for this round of 30 Days of Biking, but it’d be great if I didn’t use the car (I used it once last round) and it feels like maybe I should tally the number of dogs we meet after having interacted with four today. Four! And assuming I’ll ride multiple bikes, I’ll keep a tally of that, too.

Lise, it’s kind of a pain, but I come home and plug things into Google maps and add it all up. I have an iPhone with the Strava app on it, but if I want to take a picture or do something else, it stops recording so I haven’t figured out an easier way to do it. I’ll start complaining about the mile logging before the month is half done…and then next month is Bike Month with mile logging…and then National Bike Challenge with mile logging. Sigh.

Interested to hear of a better logging method, fbaum! Can we get double miles for pedaling during tantrums? I’d sign up for that. Also, check out the passerby/photobombers in the background – I love how flummoxed they look.

Personally, if like something that logged the distances, and just stayed on my bike; I have an app that works, but I just forget to start and stop it. If something were on my handlebars, I think I would be more likely to start and stop it.

How-to’s

Urban Cycling book

URBAN CYCLING: How to Get to Work, Save Money, and Use Your Bike for City Living
by Madi Carlson
$18.95288 Pages
Mountaineers Books

Join Familybike’s Sustainer Circle

Familybike Seattle is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit that decreases barriers to bicycling for families of all income levels. We at Familybike Seattle believe that biking as a family increases our individual, family, and societal quality of life, while at the same time moving toward sustainable lifestyles and communities. Support our rental fleet, expos, workshops, Kidical Mass, and more!
Join now